Windows Vista as an HTPC sucks.

Because of the constant updates, malware scans, indexing and whatever crap is causing 15 mins of disk thrashing whenever I boot my HTPC I am seriously considering a move from Vista to a Linux distro.

Some time ago I was in the market for a new PC and since I have limited space in my office chose to buy a small form factor PC from XPC.  Due to noise and cooling issues I decided to switch to a full size case and have begun using the small box as a Home Theater PC (HTPC).

Since I had a legit copy of Vista, and I figured I would take the small PC to LAN parties rather than lugging around my huge nerd PC.  Everyone knows you can’t game on Linux.

I have been using the HTPC to watch and stream movies and tv shows for a couple months now and wanted to share some of the frustrations I have been having.

First off, I am using Hibernation instead of shutting down the PC.  This allows for a really quick boot time into Windows when I decide I want to watch a movie on my TV.  This would be about the only thing that is working correctly.

Since I only use the HTPC a couple times a month on average whenever I  turn it on it instantly starts wanting to download and install Windows Updates. So I have changed the updates to not download or install anything.

Also, since the Windows Defender scan hasn’t run in weeks probably it starts doing that in the background as well.  I initially figured that this could be the cause of the disk thrashing so I right click the Defender icon and choose exit.  No dice.  Looking at the services and processes that are running I noticed that the actual defender scan is running as a service and not under the defender process.  So closing defender in the toolbar does nothing.  I have since disabled Windows Defender.

Along the same vein, indexing the hard disk hasn’t happened in a few weeks so it starts doing that as well as soon as the PC boots into Windows.  Awesome, huh?  So I disable those services as well.

It is a pity that there isn’t a version of Windows (Ha, like we need another version of Vista or Windows 7.  That would make what, like 8 of them?) designed with settings in mind to make it worthwhile as an HTPC.  If I were not savvy, I would be pretty pissed off that whenever I want to play a movie or stream something from the internet it is choppy for 15 mins while my computer grinds away working on things that I didn’t tell it to and that I don’t need.

Since my LAN party days are almost over, and Linux >>>> Windows anyway I might as well install a media or HTPC focused Linux distro.  It is more nerdy that way anyway.

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